Kewell faces tight schedule in Socceroo build-up

Brazilian midfielder Kaka scores one of his two goals for AC Milan in its win over Deportivo La Coruna at the San Siro on Tuesday.
Picture: Reuters

Socceroos star Harry Kewell faces playing three games in six days if he makes himself available to play against South Africa in London next week.

Coach Frank Farina will announce a full-strength 22-man squad for Tuesday's friendly at Loftus Road, and is expected to include English Premier League duo Kewell, of Liverpool, and Leeds striker Mark Viduka.

Kewell faces a hectic schedule, with Liverpool's UEFA Cup round-of-16 match away against French side Marseille today, followed by a Premier League game against Leicester on Sunday.

It will be Viduka's first contact with the Socceroos since receiving a one-match ban after he failed to turn up for last month's 1-1 draw with Venezuela.

Farina will leave out locally based pair Simon Colosimo and Ahmad Elrich, both of whom will play for Parramatta Power in the National Soccer League grand final on Sunday week.

Colosimo was man of the match in the Venezuela game.

Farina's only other concern is Italian-based midfielder Vince Grella, who is still struggling with a knee injury. Grella travelled to Venezuela despite his injury but did not play.

Before leaving for London, Farina named a 20-man Olyroos squad to play Greece in Volos, also on Tuesday.

He has recalled Scottish-based defender Patrick Kisnorbo and Middlesbrough keeper Brad Jones - both of whom declined to play in the Olyroos' Olympic qualifying series in January.

Kisnorbo, who plays for Hearts in the Scottish Premier League, replaces injured captain Ljubo Milicevic and Jones will be back-up keeper to South Melbourne's Eugene Galekovic.

Seven locally based players have been included, but none of those still involved in the NSL finals series have been selected.

In the Champions League, titleholder AC Milan scored four goals in nine minutes to move to the brink of the semi-finals with a 4-1 thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna on Tuesday.

In the other quarter-final first-leg match, Porto put itself in the driving seat with a comfortable 2-0 home win over French champion Olympique Lyon.

Milan, aiming to repeat its feat of 14 years ago by winning Europe's premier club competition two seasons in a row, produced an explosive burst of attacking soccer to recover from a nervy start at the San Siro.

Brazilian midfielder Kaka struck twice, and Serie A's leading scorer Andriy Shevchenko and midfielder Andrea Pirlo were also on target.

Shevchenko's strike was his 21st in Europe for Milan, breaking the club record he had shared with Jose Altafini.

Serie A leader Milan is unbeaten in Europe and the Italian league since December 21.

"We have an important advantage now going into the second leg. But we need to go there and play our game, hopefully, as we did tonight," said coach Carlo Ancelotti.

Porto, conqueror of Manchester United in the last round, needed patience and a stroke of luck to break the deadlock in the Antas stadium.

Striker Benni McCarthy's 44th-minute volley flashed across goal and struck the in-rushing Deco Souza, who claimed his first Champions League goal this season.